A “serious software error” at New Jersey’s department of motor vehicles caused about 6,600 non-U.S. citizens to register to vote, and “fewer than 400” of them cast their ballots in error, the state’s governor said.

“I am appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement Tuesday.

The disclosure comes as the Trump administration is pushing to pass strict new voter ID and proof of citizenship rules in Congress.

The residents, who were registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024, had indicated they were not citizens. “But through no fault of their own, the system logged them anyway,” the governor said.

Governor Sherrill said the accident occurred when residents applying for driver’s licenses and identification cards responded “no” when asked on a keyboard if they were U.S. citizens.

“Our preliminary analysis shows that fewer than 400 people registered for the first time due to the voting error,” he said.

The governor added that the group included people registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and that they were scattered throughout different parts of the state. The mistake occurred before she took office, Sherill said.

Sherrill said the vendor responsible for managing the identification system would be replaced.

President Donald Trump has long leveled baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in US elections. He recently pushed for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would create nationwide rules for voting, which are administered by the states.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in her statement that “Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity,” and that he has spread “lies” about American voting systems and attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

He promised to address the issue, contrasting his administration’s approach with Trump’s.

“The difference is simple: When we find a problem, we don’t hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we fix it, and we tell the public,” Sherrill said.

Republicans quickly seized on the news to advocate for passage of the SAVE Act.

“Yet another reason to PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!” The White House rapid response team wrote in X.

Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., called the mistake a “catastrophic failure” and called for an investigation.

Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told states that their voter rolls “must be purged” of ineligible voters.

He warned that the Trump administration could potentially withhold federal election funds from states that did not comply.

DHS has urged states to use its newly expanded national database to verify whether noncitizens had registered to vote. But ProPublica investigations , externaland ABC News, external have found that the system had the potential to incorrectly mark US citizens as eligible to vote.

The Trump administration has been embroiled in legal battles with several states over their election administration and voter rolls.

In the United States, individual states administer elections, not the federal government. But the Trump administration has sought to exert more federal control over the electoral process ahead of the November midterm elections.